Manhattan hotel stock to jump 10% by 2014

It’s boom time for hotels in New York City. The overall number of Manhattan hotels is slated to jump about 10 percent to over 90,000 by the end of 2014, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, which tracks hotel developments in the pipeline.

Manhattan’s expected growth in the hotel sector is the highest in the nation and is more than double the rate seen in Miami and Washington, the next-fastest growing urban markets, according to forecasts from Lodging Econometrics.

With an explosive retail market in Manhattan that attracts some of the world’s highest rents, hoteliers are seeing the borough as a destination essential for promoting their brand, hospitality industry analysts told the Wall Street Journal.

Hyatt Hotels Corp. and its partner, for example, are shelling out about $375 million for the city’s first Park Hyatt, which is set to open in 2014 at Extell Development’s One57 condominium tower.

“That location will help grow the Park Hyatt brand and enable the company to get more hotel management contracts over the next 20 years,” Ryan Meliker, a hotel analyst for MLV & Co., told the Journal.

But growth is also being seen on the modest end of the market, with brands such as Hilton Garden Inn and Courtyard by Marriott expanding rapidly in the city after years of focusing on the suburbs, according to the newspaper. [WSJ] – Hiten Samtani